A severed hand is found in a cemetery in Grünwald near Munich. The Vatican sends Father Simon Castell to see if this was a symbolic desecration of the cemetery. But since the hand lay on the grave of a watchman who had been shot to death, Marie Blank also shows up to investigate, but with an old acquaintance of hers in tow: Chief Inspector Frank Kleinert, one of her exes. Kleinert muscles his way into the case and, after some speedy work, comes up with some solid facts: the hand belonged to Achim Reuter, a metalworker who shot the watchman when he broke into the villa of Werner Lenzen. Kleinert has been trying to nail Lenzen, an alleged drug dealer, for years. Did Lenzen have Achim Reuter killed for having broken into his villa, and have the hand placed on the grave as a sign that he should not be crossed? This would not be surprising for someone whose chief occupation is making drug deals with South East Asia. The theories seem plausible, and the case is about to wrapped. But then Father Castell realizes that the many criminalistic facts are hiding a very different, emotional one. The true perpetrator is much closer to them than they imagine…
